Photothermal performance of CNTs/Ag (NW) nanocomposite in destroying Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria

In this research, the carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires CNTs/Ag (NW) nanocomposites with different mass ratios were prepared and their photothermal properties in killing Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027) bacteria were investigated. Photothermal effect is a characteristic of some materials that absorb visible light at a certain wavelength and convert the absorbed photon into heat and transfer it to the surrounding environment. CNTs/Ag (NW) nanocomposites can have good optical and photothermal properties in the visible and infrared range. Photothermal measurements showed that laser radiation with a wavelength of 808 nm and a power of 1 W/cm2 to CNTs and Ag (NW) with a concentration of 1 g/L in water caused an increase in the water temperature for CNTs by 46 °C and for Ag (NW) by 21.3 °C. Also, for the CNTs/Ag (NW) nanocomposite with a ratio of 10:1, this temperature increase reached 59.2 °C. The effect of photothermal therapy of CNTs, Ag (NW), and CNTs/Ag (NW) composite on two standard bacteria (ATCC 6538) and (ATCC 9027) with laser radiation with a power of 2 W/cm2 for 5 min was performed and found that more than 99 % of bacteria were killed by CNTs/Ag (NW) composite.